Hartford's Flirtation With The Patriots Ended In Heartbreak

On Nov. 19, 1998, the deal was signed. The Patriots were moving and Hartford was back in the professional sports business.

"Touchdown!" the front-page headline gushed in a special street edition of The Courant.

The state would build a $374 million stadium in downtown Hartford and the Patriots would relocate in 2001. After a decade of flirting, Hartford and the Patriots were making a commitment.

Fast forward to April 30, 1999. Patriots owner Robert Kraft terminated the deal, citing delays in construction, yet by that time Massacusetts was sweetening a deal to keep the team — $70 million in state infrastructure for the Foxborough, Mass., site, NFL loan guarantees and a commitment from the business community for luxury suites. The Patriots remained in Foxborough, and Hartford wound up with a college football stadium on the other side of the Connecticut River, Rentschler Field in East Hartford.

It was a strange five-month culmination to a story that stretched back to the early 1990s. Rumblings of the Patriots moving to Connecticut began when Bridgeport razor blade tycoon Victor Kiam purchased the team in 1988 and focus shifted to the long-term viability of the team's stadium.

Businessman Francis Murray, a minority owner under Kiam, began touting Hartford as an option in the early '90s. In 1992 Kiam sold his majority share of the team to St. Louis businessman James Busch Orthwein and speculation centered on the team's moving to St. Louis.

But in June 1993, Murray announced his intention to buy a majority stake in the Patriots and move the team to Hartford. Gov. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. was on board.

Three months later, Connecticut legislators agreed to build a 70,000-seat, $252 million stadium. If, that is, Murray delivered the Patriots.

When Murray failed, another group emerged with an eye on Hartford. Novelist Tom Clancy headed a group that included Connecticut-based actor Paul Newman and an offer was made to Orthwein in early 1992.

But Orthwein sold the franchise to Kraft, a Massachusetts businessman and owner of Foxboro Stadium. Kraft insisted the team wasn't going anywhere.

But four years later, Kraft and NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue met with Gov. John G. Rowland and Connecticut business leaders. When the Massachusetts legislature failed to finance a stadium for the Patriots in July 1998, talks with Connecticut heated up.

By the end of the year, the Patriots were coming. Until they weren't.

Rowland and the state were jilted. The May 1, 1999, front-page headline, conceived by Courant editor Brian Toolan, read: "DEAR JOHN. ..."

In the years after jilting Hartford at the altar, the Patriots evolved into a model franchise. Kraft's new stadium in Foxborough was the catalyst for retail development on land surrounding the facility and his team won three Super Bowls in four years in the early 2000s.

Six years after turning his back on Hartford, Kraft told The Courant he still wondered what might have been.

"The deal we had was a tremendous deal," Kraft said. "But I wanted to be sure it would be executed. In the end, you always want to be sure both sides are adding value. I'm not sure that was the case.

"Looking back to that time, I hope people in Connecticut feel I made a responsible decision that was in the best long-term interest of both parties. I cherish the support we get in Connecticut and welcome it and hope they understand we did the right thing. We have tremendous fan support in Connecticut, especially in the Hartford area. They've really been great to us and I hope the fan base there enjoys what's going on right now with the team and feels like they're part of it. We welcome them."